Metzes share their stories

Saturday

Jul 27, 2013 at 3:34 PM

Cynthia Grau

Imagine being told you have cancer. Imagine, five years later being told your spouse also has cancer. That was the reality for Rick and Chris Metz of Fairbury, and this year for the Livingston County Relay for Life, they are Honored Survivors and are able to tell their story.Rick Metz doesn’t remember exactly what year he was diagnosed with bladder cancer, but says his best guess was about ten years ago. It all came about during a shopping trip when he said he didn’t quite feel right, and associated those feelings with a recent surgical procedure he’d had. A trip to the doctor sent him on to a urologist, and after several procedures later, he was given the diagnosis of cancer.“He (the doctor) said he could medicate the problem and after some exploring with the scope, discovered I had polyps in my bladder. He said I was very fortunate that they hadn’t caused any damage as of yet. They had adhered to the wall of the bladder, but they had not become invasive,” he said. “From people I talked to, it is a very hard surgery to correct. I had another scope and they found more and they had to take those. I did six months more of treatment.”The treatment that he was given, the Metzes learned, was an older treatment, where a solution was run into his bladder and he had to hold it in for a period of time before expelling it.“It was a weekly thing he went through a couple of months,” his wife explained, adding that the treatment didn’t really make her husband sick like some do, it just made him really tired.“There’s no way I could have done it and been able to get home without Chris taking care of me and doing the driving and helping me stay on schedule. I’m free of it now. I just have to go once a year for a check. I’m very fortunate,” he said.Little did he know he’d be his wife’s rock merely five years later when she had a surprise diagnosis of ovarian cancer.Chris Metz said that she always went for yearly physicals and at the end of one she had in 2007, her doctor suggested a sonogram, to which she nearly cancelled because it hadn’t been explained to her why she needed it.“I got to thinking about it and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend extra money for this test. My mom said there would be a reason they wanted to do it. I went in and they said there was something on an ovary and they thought it was a polyp or something,” she explained.Surgery was planned to remove the polyp at the beginning of 2008, and when she was coming out of anesthesia, she knew something wasn’t quite right.“When I woke up from surgery, the nurses wouldn’t talk to me. They were all talking about what room I’m going to and I couldn’t understand why I was staying when I was supposed to be going home,” she said. “It turned out there was a cancerous tumor inside the polyp on the ovary, which they had not seen.”“They said the bad news is that it was cancer, but the good news is that we got it all,” she said. “ I go back every six months for a sonogram one time and blood work the other time.”Neither of the Metzes, who have been married for 27 years, have a family history of cancer and give credit to the fact that they went for regular checkups and didn’t ignore the signs their body was giving them.“I feel that our cancer was caught by accident because we questioned some things and went in for our yearly checkups,” she said. “I know people who have cancer in their families and they don’t go in for their checkups and I do not understand that.”Her husband added, “I think, yeah they were caught by accident or by coincidence. I think it was a nudge we paid attention to.”Mrs. Metz said that the upside of being in the community of cancer survivors is people are always willing to help and by talking to others in the same situation, friends are made.“One thing that we have really discovered is when you really start talking about it, suddenly you find more and more people that either have cancer or have a relative who is going through it. We have friends we have made. That’s the good part,” she said. “First thing I would say (to people in their situation) is ask questions and don’t keep your mouth shut. Turn to your neighbors, your family – get it out there and ask for help. You would be surprised how many people will pick your children up for school or bring a meal or sit and listen to you. Don’t hide in the corner.”Mr. Metz has his own advice, also, adding, “I was raised that you don’t go to the doctor for just any little thing. After having that surgery and other work done, something didn’t feel right and I knew I needed to get it looked at. Don’t doubt the little hints and clues that you’re given. Trust your body.”The pair have been active in Relay in the past, but this year is their first year participating in Livingston County, taking part in the “Heidi’s Gang” team. “I feel honored and humbled,” he said when asked how being named as an Honored Survivor feels.“I don’t feel worthy of that and I’m hoping we can do them proud,” his wife added. “ I just remind people that every day is a gift and sometimes it’s hard to remember that, but you have to realize that.”